Protests Across the Country Denounce the Cruel Separation of Immigrant Children from Parents

On Wednesday, June 27, anger continued to boil over the torture of migrant children and the threats to lock whole families up in concentration camps, as well as the Supreme Court decision to uphold Trump’s bigoted, xenophobic Muslim Travel Ban. 

Occupy ICE protests that began in Portland, Oregon on June 17, have continued to spread in other cities around the country, including today at the ICE headquarters in Washington, DC. Organizers of the Women’s March have called for non-violent civil disobedience in DC on June 28 against family detentions. At the Northwest Detention Center outside of Tacoma, Washington, protesters are reporting that police have outrageously attacked this non-violent occupation and “noise rally” and are attempting to disperse it.

In Seattle, people gathered at Central College Plaza where RefuseFascism.org activists demanded “NO Muslim Ban, NO Concentration Camps—Refuse a Fascist America!” In Baltimore, people went to city hall to stand with Muslims and immigrants and demand: #NoMuslimBanEver.

Tuesday, June 26: In Los Angeles, ahead of a speech by Trump’s attorney general Jeff Sessions, members of the clergy blocked the street in front of the U.S. Attorney’s office. They were arrested, handcuffed, and taken away by the police. Later, outside the hotel where Sessions was to give his speech, Associated Press reported that “As the attorney general's motorcade arrived, the crowd chanted, ‘Nazi, go home.’”

In Portland, the occupation of the ICE facilities there continued, with the ICE office still shut down—as continuous protests at ICE facilities in other cities across the country were inspired by the Portland action. The protestors in Portland have removed the U.S. flag from the front of the ICE building and replaced it with a banner saying “Refugees Welcome.” Meanwhile, federal agents gave protestors fliers threatening “arrest and prosecution in federal court” if they continued their blockade.

A profusion of protests has developed in the San Francisco Bay Area. Today 1,000 people held a 12-hour protest at the Richmond Detention Center, and a call for 24-hour protests starting June 30 was announced. Protests were held in San Jose, San Francisco, and Concord. At 9 pm a protest and light projection was held at the San Francisco Federal Building against the Supreme Court decision on the Muslim ban.

Sunday, June 24: Several hundred people demonstrated in Tornillo, Texas, the site of a U.S.-Mexico border checkpoint and a temporary shelter for children who came across the border with no adult or have been taken away from their parents. People chanted, “Free the children now!” Some people drove many miles to attend; some came by plane from places like Milwaukee and Los Angeles. In the crowd were some well-known people, including director/producer Rob Reiner; actors Mira Sorvino, Lena Dunham, and Amber Heard; singer Sia; and co-founder of the United Farm Workers Dolores Huerta. Heard posted an Instagram photo of herself holding a sign that says: “Apartheid was legal. Holocaust was legal. Legality is a matter of power, not justice.”

A hunger strike that started the day before continued near a federal courthouse in McAllen, Texas. Organizers plan to carry out the hunger strike for 24 days—to represent the roughly 2,400 children who have been ripped away from their families at the border. People will fast for 24 hours and then hand off to another protester. Celebrities participating include LeVar Burton, Alec Baldwin, and Martin Sheen.

More than 300 gathered near a Republican representative’s office in Glen Allen, Virginia, to protest the government’s treatment of immigrants. In Detroit, Michigan, protesters began occupying an ICE office and plan to stay 24 hours a day until June 30, the day of nationwide protests against Trump’s war on immigrants. In the second straight day of protests in Verona, Virginia, 250 gathered for a “Stop Torturing Children Rally” outside the center where immigrant children are being held. One protester said he didn’t learn about the rounding up and imprisoning of Japanese Americans until he was out of high school, and, “They’re building internment camps right now. I’m horrified.”

This bus carried immigrant children housed at the McAllen, Texas center. It was obstructed by our protests as we demanded immediate and safe reunification of children with their families. #freethechildren pic.twitter.com/nqprxjhQuX

— Leo Lopez III M.D. (@llopez8121) June 23, 2018

Saturday, June 23: Thousands of people were out in the streets from New York City to San Diego, including “Occupy ICE” actions at ICE facilities inspired by the protesters in Portland, Oregon, whose protests forced a temporary closure of their facility.

In McAllen, Texas, a couple of miles from the border, a rally was going on outside the ICE detention center when a bus transporting immigrants tried to leave. Protesters got in front of the bus to prevent it from moving, formed a human chain and started chanting “Set the children free!”

“Occupy ICE” protesters began camping outside of an ICE office in Manhattan, NYC, to block the loading dock where vans bring immigrants in and out of the building. In downtown Los Angeles, more than 60 people camped overnight in tents outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, and shined lights into the building to let the immigrants detained inside know about the protest. Earlier protesters had tried to block the loading dock area before being pushed back by police.

In Las Vegas, Nevada, at least 300 people protested outside a casino where Trump was attending a fundraiser for a Republican senator and speaking at the Nevada GOP convention. Protesters set up animal kennel cages on the sidewalk—symbolizing the cages immigrant children are being held in. Hundreds rallied near a Homestead, Florida, facility where immigrant children are being held. Protesters chanted, “No baby jails!” in Fort Worth, Texas, where the state Democratic Party convention was going on.

In Tampa Bay, Florida, protesters confronted Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi at a movie theater, questioning her support of Trump’s immigration policies. This was at least the third time recently protesters confronted Republican officials in public places—including Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Trump spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders. About 200 protested in Champaign, Illinois, at a hotel where ICE agents were reportedly staying.

In San Diego, thousands protested outside the Otay Mesa Detention center, waving signs that said, “Abolish ICE,” “Keep families together,” and “Free the kids.” In Chicago a crowd of about 600 people, including many families, marched and rallied protesting Trump’s “zero tolerance” immigration policies. The police began attacking members of the Revolution Club Chicago, who were part of the march, but in the face of opposition from people in the community, the cops backed away (see “At Chicago “March for Families” Against Attacks on Immigrants Revolution Club Attacked AGAIN by Chicago Police”).

Friday, June 22: In Houston, several hundred people protested outside an immigration center which was being prepared to hold children, demanding it be shut down before children are brought there. Members of Refuse Fascism were there, targeting the Trump/Pence regime as a fascist regime that needs to be driven out through nonviolent mass political protest. In Baltimore, Maryland, CASA de Maryland organized dozens of protesters outside the Ordnance Road Detention Center where immigrants are being held. In downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado, people lay down in the street, blocking traffic. Among them were DACA immigrants. Six people were arrested for obstructing traffic.

Thursday, June 21: In Washington, DC, in a protest organized by an interfaith group fighting for the rights of undocumented immigrants, dozens of children wrapped in Mylar blankets—like the ones issued to immigrant children in concentration-camp detention centers—laid down on the floor of Capitol Hill. The protesters demanded an end to the Trump/Pence regime’s “zero tolerance” policy targeting all people crossing the southern border without documents, including those applying for political asylum, with arrests.

In Portland, Oregon, officials announced they were shutting down the ICE facility temporarily because of the “Occupy ICE” protests that began earlier in the week and have continued 24/7. There were protests at other ICE offices and facilities across the country, including Refuse Fascism activists and others blocking the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, and 300 people at the Louisville, Kentucky, office.

In New York City, hundreds of people called out by different Jewish groups and synagogues protested at Federal Plaza, and a silent vigil was held outside a detention center in Harlem where kids taken away from their parents are being held.

A couple in California who has started a campaign on Facebook, aiming to raise $1,500 to help toward legal expenses for immigrant families who are being torn apart, said that as of Thursday evening over $17 million in donations have poured in since last Saturday.

Portland, Oregon, June 20, where people have surrounded the ICE office for two days. On June 21 officials announced they were temporarily shutting the ICE facility due to "Occupy ICE" protests.

June 20, evening, protesters meet children transported to La Guardia Airport in NYC after being separated from parents.

On Wednesday, June 20, protests against the Trump/Pence regime’s vicious policy of separating children from their parents continued across the country, from Bangor, Maine where 150 people demonstrated at a Republican Congressman’s office, with one woman holding a sign “Evil Hitler Separated Families.  America?”, to Phoenix, Arizona, where immigrants’ rights advocates squared off against pro-Trump bigots.  In Chicago, dozens marched in Refuse Fascism’s “El Silencio es Complicidad #FamiliesBelongTogether” protest in front of the Art Institute of Chicago.  Another RefuseFascism.org protest—Stop Ripping Kids Away From Parents—took place in Honolulu at the Federal Building.  

There were protests in Providence, Rhode Island, Baltimore, Maryland and Raleigh, North Carolina.  Thirty people gathered in Westborough, Massachusetts.  In Portland, Oregon, people maintained their weekly vigil outside an ICE office.  In New York City, a coalition of groups organized a World Refugee Day rally and march to “Stop the Refugee Ban, Save Asylum and Defend Temporary Protected Status (TPS).”  In Grand Rapids, Michigan, people protested Bethany Christian Services for accepting children snatched from their parents with signs reading "No profit for kidnappers," and "End the contract.”

As we write this, protesters have gathered at La Guardia Airport in New York Tuesday night to meet children being flown to the area.  As the facilities are being identified—in Harlem, Long Island, New Jersey, people have gathered in front of them to protest.

Significantly a number of the protests went ahead after Trump announced his new Executive Order (see further analysis of the Executive Order) and new protests against the Trump/Pence regime’s fascist assault on immigrants and refugees have been announced.   One person in Duluth, Minnesota tweeted they were so outraged they were organizing a protest themself against Trump, who’s speaking there tonight.

In another significant development, over 100 Microsoft employees posted an open letter demanding the company “put children and families above profits,” and end its work with ICE.  “As the people who build the technologies that Microsoft profits from, we refuse to be complicit.”  At other Silicon Valley tech firms employees have also been circulating emails and supporting protests against Trump’s assaults on immigrant families. 

On Tuesday, June 19, Refuse Fascism organized protests in several cities around the country: at Union Square in New York City; in Philadelphia—where Pence was at a meeting of the Republican Governors Association and a march to the ICE office in San Francisco.

In New York City, people marched from Union Square to the Manhattan immigrant detention center. In the protest outside the San Francisco ICE headquarters, several hundred people, including immigrants, activist, and tech workers, blocked a section of the street at one point. People chanted, “Stop taking the children.” An immigrant addressed the crowd, saying, “We are the people who wash your dishes, wash the underwear and give the food to the children.... We are not criminals. Trump is the criminal. We are all human beings.”

In El Paso, several hundred protesters from New Mexico and Texas marched to the ICE processing center. At one point people went into the street and blocked traffic. Several religious forces spoke at the rally, including Black clergy and Muslims. One minister told the crowd, “We are morally outraged because a nursing child has been ripped from the arms of her mother, we are morally outraged because a father whose child was torn from his arms committed suicide in prison.” Members of the National Nurses Organizing Committee-Texas talked about the physical and mental suffering being inflicted on these children.

Protesters gathered in Palmdale, in southern California, outside the office of a Republican congressman to oppose the ripping away of children. About 80 people, including DACA immigrants and their families, gathered to set off on a caravan to other Republican politicians’ offices to denounce the family separations.

On Monday, June 18, protesters left shoes outside the ICE detention center in downtown Los Angeles to symbolize the children being snatched away and terrorized by the government. In New Orleans, dozens demonstrated outside of the Convention Center where Trump’s attorney general Jeff Sessions was speaking. About 100 protesters rallied in New York City, organized by the Asian American Federation of New York, against the ICE arrest of a Chinese immigrant who had been in the U.S. for 20 years, during a green card interview.

There were #FamiliesBelongTogether rallies in dozens of cities last Thursday night, June 14. In Los Angeles, hundreds marched from MacArthur Park to the immigrant detention center downtown. Many of the marchers were people who are undocumented themselves. And many were teachers who have seen firsthand how ICE raids and deportations have split apart children and their parents.

On the other side of the country, in Philadelphia, hundreds gathered at the ICE office, and Refuse Fascism activists led a reading of the pledge to refuse to accept a fascist America.

Yellow bracelets worn by marchers in many places

In Huntington Village, New York, dozens gathered wearing yellow bracelets to show solidarity with immigrants. Immigrants being prosecuted and put in prison camps by the government for crossing the border are reportedly being made to wear yellow bracelets—reminiscent of the way Hitler’s Nazi Germany forced Jews to wear yellow stars, political prisoners to wear red triangles, and homosexuals to wear pink triangles. About 80 people gathered in Greenville, South Carolina, for “A Vigil for Families Torn Apart,” where one participant said, “We want to bring attention to how quickly we’re moving away from just basic values of human rights and decency.”

On Friday, when U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions came to speak in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on “law enforcement and immigration,” Refuse Fascism and some 150 others greeted this point man for the Trump/Pence regime’s fascist attacks on immigrants with shouts of “No hate, no fear, immigrants are welcome here!” and “In the name of humanity, we refuse to accept a fascist America!”

Over the weekend, protests took place in several cities in Texas, the state where thousands of children are imprisoned. A Father’s Day march began in El Paso and ended in Tornillo, where several hundred protesters spoke out about the tent city where immigrant children are being detained. There were also protests on Sunday, June 17, in the state’s capital, Austin. In McAllen, hundreds demonstrated outside the “tent camp,” i.e., open-air concentration camp, that was just set up to house immigrant children who have been ripped away from their parents.

McAllen, Texas

Some 200 held a Father’s Day protest at the Elizabeth Detention Center in New Jersey, the largest immigration center in the New York/New Jersey area, where many immigrants are detained for extended periods under horrendous conditions.

It is 102°F at 5 pm in Tucson, but hundreds of people have turned out to demand the end of separation of families at the border. #FreeTheChildren #FamiliesBelongTogether@maddow@IndivisibleTeam pic.twitter.com/okVzsrtpUt

— Justice Alliance (Indivisible SAZ) (@Indivisible_SAZ) June 15, 2018

Tuscon, Arizona

Norwalk, Ohio

San Jose, California

Orlando, Florida

Hundreds and hundreds of us protesting family separation at Boston ICE #KeepFamiliesTogether pic.twitter.com/U07mcJCDAH

— UniteBlue (@ManMet80) June 17, 2018

Elizabeth, New Jersey